Biden sexual assault accuser Tara Reade calls on him to drop out of 2020 race – live

The US death toll from coronavirus has now surpassed 75,000 people, according to the counter from Johns Hopkins University, marking a grim milestone in the global pandemic.

Deaths in the US are the highest globally, followed by the UK at 30,000 deaths. The proceeding countries with the highest numbers of deaths are Italy with 29,958 and Spain with 26,000.

The death toll is expected to continue to rise as the US begins to reopen, with up to 3,000 deaths a day forecasted.

Kari Paul here, blogging from the West Coast for the next few hours. Stay tuned for more news.

The Guardian’s Mario Koran reports on the latest from California:

Even as deaths attributed to coronavirus climb higher, topping 90 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to California’s governor Gavin Newsom, the state is bracing for a devastating impact to the state budget that will threaten schools and public services.

Just 90 days ago, California projected a budget surplus of $6 billion. It enjoyed 120 consecutive months of job growth and the lowest unemployment rate it saw in many years. It was making measurable progress in paying down pension obligations.

Three months later, said Newsom, the state is facing a shortfall of tens of billions.

Almost $12 billion in unemployment has been released just since March 15. Those job losses will soon trickle down to local governments, making messes out of next year’s budgets and forcing tough decisions.

Every budget around the globe will in some way be impacted by the pandemic, but the losses have outsized impact in a state whose economy is the fifth largest in the world.

“This moment is directly related to COVID-19, not mismanagement. But because of this pandemic, these revenue shortfalls are bigger than even the state of California,” Newsom said. “We’ll get through this. This will be challenging … But my optimism is conditioned on this: more federal support,” he added.

Moving forward will require a historic level of partnership between states and federal governments, he said. While the CARES Act has been profoundly beneficial, the enormity of the moment demands even more support.

“This is bigger than all of us and we really need the fed government to do more and help us through this moment. We punch above our weight in this state. We’ll come back stronger than ever. Because we know a lot more than we did before this crisis,” Newsom said.

The Guardian’s Mario Koran reports on the latest from California:

Coronavirus hasn’t impacted each California region uniformly, and counties will be able to apply for reopening variances, or some customization of the plans, provided certain conditions are met, governor Gavin Newsom said today.

“These counties that want to move deeper into the second phase [of reopening] have to do so with concurrence with their hospital systems, board of supervisors. We’re interested in argument and will try to provide some flexibility. But it’s a health-first frame,” Newsom said.

Among the conditions: health officials must attest that they’ve had no more than one case per 10,000 people in the last 14 days, no deaths in the past two weeks, and that they could handle a surge in hospitalizations from coronavirus.

They must also be able to conduct 1.5 tests for every 1,000 residents, have 15 contact tracers, or “disease detectives” per 1,000 residents, can support homeless residents, and skilled nursing facilities must have a two week supply of personal protective equipment on hand.

“If they can’t meet the guidelines, we aren’t able to accommodate that and will enforce in a thoughtful and judicious way. But we’re confident the vast majority of people will work with us,” Newsom said.

Newsom’s remarks come just after state regulators descended on two rural, California counties to shut down pubs, restaurants and salons that had opened, in defiance of Newsom’s statewide order. Additional details for reopening will be released next week, on Tuesday.

The Guardian’s Mario Koran reports on the latest from California:

The path toward reopening California is coming into focus, as governor Gavin Newsom today announced guidelines that businesses will have to follow as they move toward reopening.

Starting tomorrow, retailers that sell books, clothing, toys and flowers will be able to reopen for curbside pickup, so long as they adhere to physical distancing guidelines, have hands-free ways to pay for goods, and have adequate personal protective equipment.

Manufacturers will also have to make changes, possibly closing breakrooms and moving them to open-air rooms.

Moving further into the second phase of reopening, shopping malls, outdoor museums and dine-in restaurants will be able to open their doors, so long as the counties looking to reopen do so in partnership with hospital systems and public health officials.

Newsom expressed particular reservation at the notion of reopening nail salons, stating that they played a part in spreading the earliest recorded cases of coronavirus cases.

Tara Reade addressed questions about her views on Russia during an interview with former Fox New host Megyn Kelly.

Reade, who has accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her when she was a young Senate staffer, expressed frustration about people “talking about things that have nothing to do with 1993.”

Reade specifically cited allegations that she was a Russian agent, which were tied to a Medium post she wrote in 2018 praising Vladimir Putin. “That incites people,” Reade said of the allegations. “I got a death threat from that because they thought I was being a traitor to America. These are serious things.”

Vox explains more on those accusations:

[C]ritics pointed to that now-deleted 2018 Medium post in which Reade called Putin ‘a compassionate, caring, visionary leader’ and said, ‘To President Putin, I say keep your eyes to the beautiful future and maybe, just maybe America will come to see Russia as I do, with eyes of love.’

In the same post, she wrote that she left government work in her 20s in part because ‘I love Russia with all my heart’ and ‘I could not stand to watch the deception and xenophobia that came from my own American government.’

Reade told Vox that when she wrote the praise of Putin, she had ‘watched a bunch of Noam Chomsky’ and was working on a novel set in Russia. She says she no longer feels the same way about Putin since learning more about domestic violence in Russia.

But ‘this conversation isn’t about Russia,’ she told Vox. ‘Joe Biden wasn’t asking me about my feelings about Russia when he had his hands where they weren’t supposed to be.’

In her interview with Tara Reade, Megyn Kelly noted that Joe Biden has said an accuser should be treated with “the presumption that at least the essence of what she is talking about is real.”

Kelly asked Reade if she thought Biden had treated her with that presumption. She said no and went on to criticize his surrogates for siding with the former vice president in the matter.

“It’s been stunning actually how some of his surrogates with the blue checks … have been saying really horrible things about me and to me on social media,” Reade said.

The former Senate staffer added that she has been hacked and received a death threat since accusing Biden of sexual assault.

“Every person that maybe has a gripe against me — an ex-boyfriend or an ex-landlord or whatever it is — has been able to have a platform rather than me,” Reade said.

On another topic, Trump told reporters that he had “very little contact” with his valet who tested positive for coronavirus.

“I’ve had very little contact, personal contact, with this gentleman. Know who he is, good person, but I’ve had very little contact, Mike has had very little contact with him,” Trump said, referencing the vice president.

However, reports have indicated that the valet delivered the president’s meals, which would indicate they were in frequent contact with each other.

Trump noted that he and Mike Pence have both tested negative since they learned of the valet’s test result.

But the president interestingly questioned the value of coronavirus tests in light of the news. “It just shows you the fallacy – what I’ve been saying, testing is not a perfect art. No matter what you do, testing is not a perfect art,” Trump said.

Public health experts have emphasized that widespread testing and tracing are crucial to safely reopening the economy.

Trump claimed that Michael Flynn had been “targeted” by the Obama administration, even though the former national security adviser pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

“He was targeted by the Obama administration, and he was targeted in order to try to take down a president,” Trump said moments ago in the Oval Office.

The president expressed a desire for retribution against government officials who handled Flynn’s case. “I hope a lot of people are going to pay a big price because they’re dishonest, crooked people,” Trump said. “They’re scum. They’re human scum.”

As a reminder, the president himself acknowledged in 2017 that Flynn had lied to the vice president and the FBI about his interactions with the Russian ambassador to the US.

It’s important to note that it’s unclear how the federal judge overseeing Michael Flynn’s case will react to the justice department’s motion to drop the case.

In 2018, Judge Emmet Sullivan delayed Flynn’s sentencing to give the former official more time to cooperate with federal investigations, rather than agreeing to the relatively lenient sentence recommended by the prosecution.

“If you want to postpone this, and come back at some later point … that’s fine with me,” Sullivan said at the time.

“I have to caution you that the sentence imposed today may not be the same sentence you would get after cooperation ends,” Sullivan said. “I cannot assure you that if you proceed today, you will not receive a sentence of incarceration.”